Daggett gets little help from ballot position

On Cape May County ballots, independent candidate Chris Daggett drew the eighth position -- meaning Daggett supporters will have to do some searching to find his name on election day.

By Dan Good

Here's what ballots in Ocean City, Cape May County will look like. Chris Daggett's location is circled.

By Dan Good

On Atlantic County ballots, independent candidate Chris Daggett drew the 10th and final position -- meaning Daggett supporters will have to do some searching to find his name on election day.

On Atlantic County ballots, Chris Daggett is listed last among independent gubernatorial candidates.

Staff photo by Anthony Smedile

Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett

After his spirited performance in last Thursday's debate,
independent candidate for governor Chris Daggett has seen the
number people Googling him increase by 40 times over last year.

Voters who want to pull the lever for Daggett will need to
embark on a similar sort of search come election day - to find his
name on their ballot.

Daggett is one of 10 independent and minor party candidates in
the race.

A week ago, voters may not have known what separated him from
the other nine.

But since Daggett put on a bright pink tie and took his
televised opportunity Thursday to lay into his opponents, incumbent
Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine and Republican Chris Christie,
voters may now want to seek him out.

His obstacle: New Jersey laws reserving the top two spots on any
ballot for the two major-party candidates.

Last month, Daggett - along with Libertarian Party candidate
Kenneth Kaplan - took the step of filing suit against the
practice.

The suit argued the system was unconstitutional because it gives
an unfair advantage to those backed by major parties.

But the state Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis declined
to hear the case before November's vote.

"It makes a big difference," he said. "The political system is
set up to favor the two major parties - and any time you make it
harder for people to do something, fewer of them do it."

"Ballot position does matter - and I think the 2000 election is
an example of why that's true," said Brigid Harrison, professor of
political science at Montclair State University, refering to the
close presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore, where
voting-machine glitches allowed votes to be mistakenly cast for
third-party candidates. But, citing "gut instinct," she said
position would only cost Daggett a statistical percentage-point or
two.

But both Dworkin and Harrison added that other factors will be
at work within the voting booth.

"Particularly with Daggett voters, these are people who have
made a conscious decision to split with the main-party system and
vote for him," said Harrison. "So it's well within their
capabilities to scope out and vote for Chris Daggett."

Dworkin, however, said that Daggett's election-day performance
may not match his poll numbers - simply because voters find it
easier to tell pollsters they're leaning to a third party than to
act on it.

"They may feel they're throwing their vote away," Dworkin
said.

Back in Cape May, county clerk Rita Marie Fulginiti recalled
other local independent candidates who had made light of their
lowly ballot position.

She particularly noted one erstwhile candidate for various
public offices. "We had one gentleman, Andrea Lippi, who would use
his candidate's message space to promote his poetry," she
recalled.